Domain squatters are worse than people who drive slowly in the left lane

Something I noticed today:

asdf.com - original website, hasn't changed from when it was first registered

asdfasdf.com - domain squatter

asdfasdfasdf.com - domain squatter

asdfasdfasdfasdf.com - domain squatter

asdfasdfasdfasdfasdf.com - domain squatter

asdfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdf.com - finally, unregistered.

FIVE asdfs! There are people in the world who think that five asdfs is going to be worth something to someone.

Well there are about to be a bunch more top-level domain names, so at some point, dot-com is going to become less valuable real estate. Things are going to get weird RSN.

I finally ran into a client who has a service mark on their name. This means they can basically squash the squatter who has the name, take it from them with no compensation. I won't link to that squatter, as I don't want to give them any kind of promotion. I want to squash them like a bug. (But the client is a sushi restaurant in Philly (and look what a nice job I did on their temporary website which will be replaced with something even nicer))

I think getting away from dot com will be a good thing. But you are right, it is going to get weird before we all figure it out.